16 Comments

Yes!!! I loved the skating rink on Gutierrez. In the ‘60’s they ran a special offer: a free pair of quality lace-up roller rink skates after completing a session of skating classes. I earned my skates and really enjoyed fun times there. Also, my brother & I learned to swim at the YMCA on the corner of Carrillo & Chapala - (now Ralph’s). As a special treat, we played Miniature golf somewhere around Gutierrez - still there when our kids were young. Thanks for sparking memories of the SB of my youth!

Guiterrez, not Cota, right. Went there often in the late 50s in elementary school, loved it. The sound of the wheels on the wooden rink, the music, the dusty smell. Skating backwards, doing little spins, very fun times for kids.

Actually I think this opens up a more interesting discussion about all of the rinks & attempts at getting decent organized hockey into SB. in 1992 I was 5 years old. At that time, Gretzky was my childhood hero and hockey & the Kings were my life. When I started playing, there was a little league that played in the carp high gym, the thunderbowl was open and had a coed league there, the lot was there, and there was a legit indoor rink in goleta at what is now I think the motorsports place. I was too young to remember the Ice Patch, but grew up hearing stories of the legendary place my parents used to go to on dates. The montecito YMCA held hockey clinics weekly on like wednesday nights where 8-10 of us would go and had a coach teach us skating and stick handling, that clinic was the justification for them to build a rink, which they did, only to never get used the way it really should have. From there I played in the GHL which was a makeshift rink in the corner of San Marcos High school. I then played 1 season at the indoor roller rink, and I'll never forget going to the first practice and have the coach teach us about outlet passes, we ran that drill 40 times that day, and 2 days later before the first game he passed away from a heart attack. I think about that every time I make a good outlet pass. That rink then closed, then they built the rink at Earl Warren and that was the main rink in SB until Ice in Paradise came along a few years ago. It was always interesting to me how hard the town fought to try to sustain hockey for the kids, and all the efforts of the community to make sure we had a place to play. While they were all pretty psudo in the grand scheme, I always felt very appreciative to have the opportunity to play the sport I so much loved and still do, I play at Ice in Paradise now, and there's nothing like playing on ice, but for a beach community, we still got to play plenty of puck growing up.

when you were 5 i was 22 and played on local pick up leagues down at the beach parking lots. rollerblade, but we had a lot of people. The Edmonton dynasty moved to LA at that time, then we got Paul Coffeey and a few other greats for the LA Dream Team. Good times...
i miss playing. center and left wing.

Unfortunately, the Independent article referenced by EASTBEACH has several errors concerning dates. The following restaurants were cited as being opened in 1949, but were actually in business before that: Joe's Cafe (1928); Jimmy's Oriental Gardens (1947); The Harbor (1941); and Dutch Garden (1925).

Off topic, but wow, I forgot about Talk of the Town. The LaPiana's were our neighbors, very kind people. Interestingly, it opened in 1949 the same year as Jimmy's, La Paloma, Joe's Cafe, The Harbor, and Dutch Garden ..... https://www.independent.com/news/2015/dec/05/santa-barbaras-restaurant-history/